Gaz celebrating the second anniversary of Gamepad.club
Good Morning Folks! The weird thing about having a fixed schedule for your blog posts, is that you feel really weird changing it. As such I contemplated making this blog post over the weekend on Saturday, because the 25th was the second anniversary of Gamepad.club the Mastodon/Fediverse server that I assist with. That sounds rather clinical, but in truth Gamepad has become my home on the internet and the local feed and various other folks on the “Fedi” my extended family. Thankfully Gaz was better about posting at the appropriate time than I was. This little project continues to be one of the things that I am most proud of… which sounds weird considering that this was mostly Gaz’s doing and I have just helped out a bit behind the scenes along with Scopique and Aywren. In truth the last two years have been pretty damned smooth save for a few cases where we had to mass defederate some spammer sites.
non-public information blurred out as well as someone’s account that was labeled “secret” just in case.
I was actually the second account signed up on this server and joined January 25th, 2023 at 3:36 PM my timezone. This was roughly 20 minutes after Gaz created his own account. Scopique came along on the 29th which is I think the day we went public with the server. We did a few days of burn in before properly promoting it and opening the floodgates. We’ve not grown to be a massive server, but managed to stay comfortably in the 120-150 active accounts range during the entire time. There are a little over 300 total accounts on the server, but as is the case with many new platforms… not everyone finds their home right away. Truth be told the Fediverse is too “DIY” for a lot of folks who just want a direct drop in replacement for Twitter. That said it has also been the only place I have ever truly felt 100% comfortable to let down my guard and be my exceptionally strange self. If this Tales of the Aggronaut blog is my true home on the internet, then Gamepad is my Neighborhood… in that old timey way of having block parties, potluck dinners, and such.
I had great hopes for the Twitter migration, and that we would end up enthralling a bunch of folks converting them to the way of Mastodon. That never quite worked out for various reasons, but for me it was an easy change. I had been screwing around with the Fediverse since 2018, so that in 2022 when I felt like it was time to separate myself from Twitter… I knew precisely where I would end up. That said… I bounced around quite a bit between sites, and it was only really when Gaz asked me about helping him with Gamepad.club that I found a permanent home. Essentially he wanted to create a safe harbor for our friends that were leaving Twitter, and he learned a lot of lessons while hosting the ill fated MMORPG.social knowing we could create something better this time around. I’m happy to say that two years later we have this very stable community, and it is a freaking delight to participate in it.
All of that said… I’ve reached the point where I am no longer attempting to recruit people. I spent the last year I was active on Twitter effectively making nothing but “come to mastodon” posts with primers and information on how to get started. I am sure everyone got more than sick of that. Folks have largely ended up over on Bluesky, which is a perfectly cromulent social platform and was effectively a direct cut and paste for Twitter. It took me a long while to realize it, but no one was really looking for a more open platform other than me and others that were like minded. I wanted a social network that I had more control over, and that was not going to blow away in the wind at the whims of some Oligarch. I feel justified that the continued downfall of Twitter has proven my viewpoint to be correct. That said… most folks just want something painfully simple that has the majority of their friends on it… and do not really care who is running the platform so long as they don’t have to pay for it.
The thing that is super interesting however is for the folks who actually care about having a more open and stable platform… they are also willing to chip in to help support it. In Gaz’s post on the anniversary he indicated that we have 25 folks who are supporting the Gamepad patreon. Which I believe is bringing in enough funds to pay the bills and keep the server up and running. Additionally recently there has been a call for a Merch shop of some sort, and we talked a bit about that over the weekend. I would not be opposed to such nonsense pending we can find a platform that effectively runs itself and drop ships items on our behalf. That would potentially be another avenue for supporting the server when there are overages in the various cloud hosting bills. I support the server by helping to admin it, but also chip in $10 per month because you can’t keep the lights on with good intentions. I’ve been thrilled to see so many folks who are similarly civic minded and want to help make this site available for everyone.
I think the era of Twitter is finally coming to an end… years later that many of us who fled to Mastodon/Fediverse predicted. Unfortunately the platform of choice turned out to be Bluesky, which puts the continued fate of the platform in the hands of more would be tech Oligarchs. If the entire Fediverse went to shit, Gamepad could effectively disconnect itself and remain stable and viable. If Bluesky goes to shit… it is dragging everything down with it. All of that said the platform seems reasonable for the time being and that is definitely where the folks looking for a direct Twitter replacement ended up. I kind of use Bluesky as my “public facing” account and Gamepad as my private account. While I federate my Gamepad account with Bluesky, I prolifically use the “followers” visibility to keep posts I want more “private” from going across that wire.
I am hoping that two years is only the beginning for this platform. Thanks to Gaz for kicking off this project, and thanks to everyone who has joined over the years and been active. I love you dearly, and look forward to hanging out with you in local over the coming years. Mastodon/Fediverse sadly feels like insider tech, that only some folks are really going to “grok”… but those who do… seem hooked for life.
The post Two Years of Gamepad appeared first on Tales of the Aggronaut.
Featuring: Ammosart, Ashgar, Belghast, Grace, Kodra, and Thalen
Hey Folks! We are down a Tam this week but start off the show talking a bit about our various mental states with the happenings going on out in the world. From there Grace talks about Rusty’s Retirement a delightful idle game that has a lot of the same functionality as Stardew Valley but runs in a small window at the bottom of your monitor. From there we talk about Diablo IV Season 7 and how it is quite possibly the best D4 season ever… that no one is really giving much fanfare. We talk a bit about how the streamers have seemingly abandoned the game. Kodra shares with us the process of resolving combat in the Battletech tabletop game from the 80s… giving Thalen and Bel flashbacks in a bad way. Finally, Ash has been playing Sonic Frontiers and talks about it actually being a really good open-world Sonic game.
Good Morning Folks! This morning I am going to spend some time talking about something weird happening with Diablo IV right now. Season Seven aka the Season of Witchcraft is without a doubt peak Diablo IV. This is the best seasonal mechanic we have ever had and the game has more content than it has ever had in the past. Additionally the mechanical state of the game is better than we have seen previously and there are way more classes that have viable play patterns as a result. However… folks seem to be abandoning Diablo IV in droves, and this is has not been illustrated more clearly by the lack of streamers diving into the game. Previously a new Diablo IV season would see most of the Path of Exile streamers come back if for no reason other than to meme on the game for a day or two before returning to their core demographic.
What we are seeing instead is folks who used to be part of the core stalwart group of Diablo IV streamers… abandoning the game. Darth Microtransaction effectively made his brand on the back of first Diablo Immortal and then later Diablo IV. I went through his broadcast records and could not find any sign that he actually streamed even a moment of Diablo IV Season Seven. Raxxanterax was the definitive “Diablo III” guy for me and has been a regular source of information about Diablo IV since the launch of the game, and he streamed two days… looked annoyed while doing it, and then as of yesterday was back in Path of Exile II. This is translating to the game as well, because I am not sure I have fought a single world boss yet with a full party. Additionally during peak prime time gaming hours, I am one of the few people on my Battle.net friends list actually playing the game.
I think at least on some level… the expansion release broke a lot of people. It was not a great story, but worse than that… it felt like an incomplete story. Diablo games have traditionally been about killing a big bad at the end. The core Diablo IV story is about chasing Lilith and then ultimately killing her. Vessel of Hatred seemed like it was going to be an expansion about chasing Mephisto and then ultimately killing him… but instead we just took down his literal lapdog. The story arc of the expansion felt like something we might expect as a free incremental story patch in an MMORPG, not something that is boxed paid DLC. I think there were a lot of folks holding out hope that the DLC was going to change the trajectory of Diablo IV, and it didn’t really do that… causing them to check out. It is impossible to get numbers for this game, since the Steam version launched so late that it represents a fairly insignificant slice of the total player pie.
I am still having fun, but I also know that once I tick off the checkboxes of the seasons journey and finish out the battle pass that I will probably fade away as well. What I will fade back into… I have no clue honestly. Raxx showed recently that you can power level a character in just a bit more than two hours, so given the level of playtime streamers have… it is probably not shocking that they have all cycled through the game. Sure there are folks who have almost exclusively built their brand on the game like Rob that are still grinding away…. but within the week I figure most folks will have cycled back to something else. The Witchtide is fun as heck, but it seems like it is not quite enough to actually keep at least the public side of the player base engaged for very long.
I moved into chapter five aka slayer on my Seasons Journey last night, and I have been stockpiling my boss summon materials so that Ace and I can get together this weekend and run a bunch of bosses in a row. This mostly just makes it so that the loot goes further, since each of us gets our own copy of the loot. I’ve swapped out all but two of my slots for Ancestral gear, and it seems like maybe Ancestral Legendaries are dropping much less often in Torment 1 than they did during the expansion launch. I don’t have all of the items that I ultimately need, but I am still ripping through content pretty easily. I finally got all of the glyphs and now just need to work on leveling them. I’ve also got a few Infernal Hordes keys that I hope to run with Ace as well to see what sort of loot and levels we can get from that event.
Raxx released his usual State of the Game, and even he admits that the season mechanic is probably the best one yet. However he still sounds really unsatisfied with the state of the game. His big complaint is that at least compared to other ARPGs right now, Diablo IV does not have much replayability. I would probably agree with that and once you have ground your way through to Torment 4, completed the season journey, hit level 100, and finished the battle pass… there isn’t much reason to keep playing. There is nothing in the game that is so chase as to serve as that thing that keeps you spinning the randomizer for weeks on end hoping that maybe just maybe you will see it. All of that said… I am okay with that. I have Path of Exile, Path of Exile II, and Last Epoch that serve to scratch that itch for me. Diablo IV will probably always be a fun and chill romp of a game because the “Exile” games at least are deeply punitive when it comes to grouping with your friends.
Diablo III was a game that I played every three months with my friend Ace for a weekend, and then was more than happy to bounce until the next season start. It was this super fun if short event that we participated in that brought me a lot of joy. I’ve never been able to find that same level of super chill but focused gameplay in Path of Exile or the sequel Path of Exile II. We’ve been able to get to that point with Last Epoch, but even it feels a bit too punitive at times. Diablo IV however, has reached the point where we both have a focused but fun interaction during the season, and then group up to do a bunch of fun content together helping the other one get through the seasonal accomplishments before fading away and playing something else. As such I am perfectly okay if this is a short term game for me, and honestly appreciate the fact that it is because I know I can slot it in easily each time a new season comes out.
Quite honestly I appreciate the brevity. By next weekend I will be finished with Season Seven and be perfectly fine bouncing to do something else. I know that I have the next Path of Exile season 3.26 somewhere around the corner, and Last Epoch Cycle 2 in April. I also want to pop back into Guild Wars 2 and catch up on the expansion content since I have yet to engage with the second content drop from Janthir Wilds. I think I might mentally be ready to spend some time in an MMORPG again after copious grinding between Settlers League, Necro Settlers, and the launch of Path of Exile II early access. That is not to say that I am entirely done with Path of Exile II either. I do really enjoy that character and have a heck of a lot of fun mapping on it now. It just seems like ARPGs are going through the same false dichotomy that MMORPGs did years ago… with the concept of the “one true game” and that everyone feels the need to pick only one and focus on it entirely.
While I deep dive through the rabbit hole on pretty much every game that I devote time to… I also play a bunch of different games. This works for me, and quite honestly means that there is always something interesting right around the corner. It feels bad that Season Seven is getting panned so heavily, and I am concerned that the Diablo IV team is going to take the wrong lesson from that. If you have been on the fence about jumping into the Season of Witchcraft I suggest that you give it a shot. Like I said at the top of this post, it legitimately is peak Diablo IV and is pretty much the best that the game has ever been. I think the challenge is… that “best” is not what many players and streamers are looking for.
The post The Season Seven Paradox appeared first on Tales of the Aggronaut.
Good Morning Folks! I hit level 60 last night and officially entered the endgame. I am exceptionally happy because I essentially did not change any of my gear since around level 40, and did only a minimal item swap in a few slots when I hit 60… and was pretty much able to roll straight into a Pit 20 to unlock Torment 1. The Season of Witchcraft is going to do nothing for the folks who are deeply biased against Diablo IV, but for those of us who are capable of finding joy in more than one thing at a time… it is a pretty great time to be alive. Diablo IV will always be the Duplo version of an ARPG, but that does not mean that there is not a heck of a lot of fun to be had. Quite honestly I feel like we have this great progression to take someone from only being mildly engaged all of the way to gibbering madly in the darkness.
Essentially for me… you have Diablo III which is the absolute simplest version of an ARPG. Now Diablo IV sits just on the other side of Diablo III with a little bit more nuance and build variety. Then you have Last Epoch which serves as this happy medium between all of the games where it is very easy to understand, has a lot of hand-holding for gear progression, but also has real depth for creating interesting builds. On the other side of that I feel like Path of Exile II really serves as a much more accessible gateway drug to Grinding Gear Games. It is a bit more complicated than Last Epoch, but nowhere near as complex as Path of Exile 1. Finally at the furthest end of the spectrum you have the original Path of Exile with its decades worth of systems built upon systems and effectively represents the ARPG version of what the Kowloon Walled City was. No one should feel shame for finding their happy place and then deciding that they do not need to descend any further into madness.
Anyways…. back to this post… at this point I have done up through a Pit 25 and need to spend a lot of time grinding the Pit until I have all of the glyphs needed for my build. I wish there was a more interesting way of acquiring these because in its current state… The Pit feels way less rewarding than some of the other endgame systems. There are a bunch of vectors that I need to follow to level up various things but not having any of the right glyphs is a problem that should be remedied quickly. I still do not love the paragon system in general and feel like it is way too tedious for what it is. I would FAR rather have a passive tree like Path of Exile 1/2 than this obtuse combination of boards. The big problem is when you decide that you want to swap builds… it is just a pain to set up all of the paragon boards again.
Right now I am trying to make the decision if I stick with the pure minions build, or if I migrate to one of the other more powerful Necromancer builds like Blood Wave. I think ultimately I want to end up Blood Wave but am uncertain if it is worth trying to transition until I have at least some of the uniques that the build relies upon. Unfortunately… Blood Wave is a zero minions build in its optimal form… and I do not love that. That is one of the things that kind of annoys me about the current state of the Necromancer is it feels like the best versions are all based no not having minions at all. Ultimately if I wanted to have zero minions… I figure I would just play a Sorc. If I can get to Torment IV on pure minions then I will be pretty happy, because quite honestly… once I finish the seasons journey and the battle pass I will probably stop caring about Diablo IV.
Speaking of Seasons Journey… I am currently in Chapter IV and starting to whittle away at the requirements. This is ultimately going to be my guide moving forward and will dictate a lot of the activities that I participate in. At some point I am going to have to take down Lilith, and if I can actually do that as Minions I will be exceptionally happy. I also want to do some boss farming with Ace like I did last league, so hopefully the build will allow us to do that. Spiritborn was wildly overpowered… but honestly Necromancer at least so far does not feel terribly weaker. At very least I had a much easier time transitioning into the first Torment level than I did as my Centipede Spiritborn. Spiritborn did not become exceptionally overpowered feeling until I switched over to Quill Rain.
As far as the Battle Pass goes, I am only 20 levels into that. From what I remember last season it did not really start speeding up until I could chain farm the internal council. I know that knocking out the sub objectives of the seasons journey also seems to give a lot of credit as well. Like I said above my goals for Season 7 are to complete the Seasons Journey and complete the Battle Pass. Any thing past that truly is a bonus, because if I can squeeze enough enjoyment out of the game to make it to Path of Exile season 3.26 I am going to be stoked. It is a little sad though that this Diablo IV season feels like it is the best so far and it is getting very little in the way of attention. Most of the ARPG streamers are continuing to stream Path of Exile II for the time being, and at least among my Battle.net friends there are very few people playing outside of my closest circle of friends.
I’m happy and having fun and honestly… that really is the only thing that matters. I also really dig the look of my character… which is admittedly the same basic appearance I use on all of my Necromancers but I am pretty happy with the armor. That has been the thing that I really enjoy about completing the battle pass each season, is gaining even more interesting cosmetics to use going forward. Diablo IV will probably always be an acquired taste, and will never be technical enough to gain legitimacy amongst the most hardcore players in this genre. It however still will be a pretty fun game to revisit every few months… pending they don’t do anything terribly stupid with it.
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